polyphasic sleep and lucid dreaming

**elleboog** · 01-06-2016 12:29 PM

So the past few days I've been looking into polyphasic sleep, and I am honestly a bit confused as to why this is discussed so little in the lucid dreaming community.
It seems that even attempting uberman for maybe a week will bring interesting experiences like shifts of consciousness that could be (IMO) helpful for lucid dreaming.

Even more interesting though, is that when using exaptation or naptation (I'll explain them in a bit) you quickly (+- 3 days) gain the ability to quicksleep (fall asleep withing minutes) and get a 20 min nap full of only REM.
The lucid dreaming implications of this seem fairly obvious to me, as this would make remembering dreams easier, and also seems great for WILDing.
+ you get a lot more opportunities because of the polyphasic nature of your sleep.
I tend to think of it as the better/more extreme/advanced/*insert superlative* WBTB (and to my knowledge WBTB is still the most efficient technique for inducing lucid dreams) --> you do the math.

Quick note: even people that don't know about lucid dreaming and adapt to uberman report having lucid dreams, more vivid dreams and dreams that seem to last forever (even if you only sleep 20 minutes).
One person even reported that upon waking from a 20 min nap and looking at the clock, she thought she overslept a whole day because the dream seemed so long. (!!)

So what is Exaptation?
Basically it is training yourself to take efficients naps. How to do it:

- Stay awake 24-36 hours to induce sleep deprivation
- Start taking 20 minute naps every 2 hours (so 12 naps a day)
- After about 3 days you have quicksleep and REM naps

The problem then becomes getting slow wave or deep sleep into naps, which makes uberman so hard.
Personally I will try to go on everyman 3 so that i can introduce a core sleep of 3h to get SWS

For more information on polyphasic sleeping i would recommend visiting polyphasicsociety.com
let me know what you think about this!

**midnightfire** · 01-06-2016 01:52 PM

Hmm interesting. I hadn't heard of that term before. While I can see the potential to help out lucid dreaming, it doesn't seem practical for anyone who has a job or family to look after and would be dangerous if you have to drive places.

I wouldn't risk doing this either because it would for sure mess up your hormone balance and could cause problems in the body that take months to correct. I would rather follow a method that is something I can use in the long term and doesn't throw my entire body clock off balance. Sleep deprivation for a day+ is certainly extreem, I used to do it when I was younger to re-set after staying up late at night in school holidays and then needing to get ready to wake up at the time I usually went to sleep, and it was not at all fun or good for me and I did experience health repercussions in terms of adrenal fatigue etc. So that is my caution but perhaps in some individual circumstances this would be interesting to experiment with.

that's just my two cents anyways

**elleboog** · 01-06-2016 02:33 PM

Yeah during adaptation you are not functional so driving is a very bad idea.
The amazing part is that when you are adapted you can actually go with less sleep without any side-effects (as far as I know there is no scientific evidence to support nor deny this)
Only downside is you have to make your schedule work around the naps and it's less flexible than monophasic sleep

**Patience108** · 01-06-2016 02:53 PM

I find this very interesting and have done since hearing about it some years ago

I would love to plan to do this at some point in my life but I do have a little worry about how it will go along with daytime obligations etc...

The only DV member I heard speaking about it - is Sageous in a thread - I think

saying that he takes time every year to move into a polyphasic sleep patern - It would be interesting to hear more about that

and ofcourse keep us updated on how it goes for you elleboog

**Sageous** · 01-06-2016 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by Patience108

The only DV member I heard speaking about it - is Sageous in a thread - I think

saying that he takes time every year to move into a polyphasic sleep patern - It would be interesting to hear more about that

Okay.

Yes, I do indeed practice a modified (read:milder) form of polyphasic sleep for one or two months per year (separated from each other by several normal sleep months) where I sleep 3 to four hours per night (starting at 3 or 4 am), and then follow up with one or two naps during the day, which range from one to four hours, depending on my LD'ing requirements/success. Plus, I do something similar every Wednesday, though I don't consider that the same thing, because one day of shifted hours is much easier to manage than a full month. I've been doing this for several years (I was doing it long before I heard of polyphasic sleep methods like Uberman's, BTW), and it has worked very well for me.

Regarding why polyphasic sleep isn't as popular among LD'er's as you would expect: Because I am retired from my 9-5 job, I am not obliged to follow a specific sleep schedule to make it to work or school (aka, I won't get in trouble from a boss or teacher for sleeping in the middle of the day). Our world is set up, for better or worse, for a single block of sleep per day, and it can be difficult to work a polyphasic schedule into it.

That said, I do have a feeling that the LD'ing community is much more familiar with polyphasic sleep, Elleboog, than you -- or they -- might be aware. After all, in a sense, WBTB is essentially an extremely mild form of polyphasic sleep, isn't it? Also, many dreamers stay briefly awake after each REM period to record their dreams. Now, I understand that neither of these things completely break a single night's sleep cycle, but they do some breaking, and that does give them better LD'ing results. I would imagine that many dreamers would try out schedules closer to Uberman if their daily lives permitted.

**elleboog** · 01-09-2016 05:43 PM

Thanks for answering!
I definitely agree that WBTB is comparable to polyphasic sleep, that's one of the reasons I expect it to be so efficient.
Anyway I guess I will just have to test it out for myself and see what happens.
Maybe I will start another Thread for updates.

**bro** · 01-09-2016 11:39 PM

Take this for what it's worth. The everyman schedule you describe works and it works well, provided you are disciplined with reality checking during the day and have a general knowledge of lucid dreaming.

In previous years I did it. Worked down to a 3-4 hour core with 3-4 30 minute naps. If you are dedicated and know how to WILD, you will find that WILD'ing in this state is monumentally easier. Thing is, you need to have a schedule that works for you and your professional life. I was only able to do it and reliably stick to schedule because I put my life into it for a period of months, as I did not have much else going on at the time.

Now with work that requires a 4-5 am wakeup daily, I cannot afford to deprive myself of a 7-8 hour core sleep. Give it a try, stick with it for a few weeks, I think you'll be pleased.